Scattering IQ —— Chapter 25 [2.13]

And yet, this was not what had caused Lu Manni the most distress. Although Qi Chen’s Weibo was basically equivalent to giving her a face-slap, she could have shamelessly pretended she didn’t know anything.

After all, her previous post was not directed at Qi Chen – it could be seen as a personal statement so there was no need for him to cooperate with her.

What really made her feel desperation was the fact that less than ten minutes after Qi Chen posted his Weibo, another long Weibo post appeared on the Internet.

This Weibo analyzed that the previous gossip between Qi Chen and herself was fabricated and meant to create hype, going so far as to list out the various water army accounts employed.

As soon as this Weibo came out, the network which had finally quieted down due to the late time once again started bustling. The various water armies and passers-by who had supported Qi Chen and Lu Manni’s love were ‘pa pa pa’ firmly slapped in their faces, and those who had believed the incident was manmade to create hype started their joyous all-out face-slapping attacks.

When Lu Manni saw this Weibo, her whole person became stiff. After confirming that none of the information linked to herself, she finally calmed down a little, but her heart was filled with unease and anger.

She had clearly arranged and considered all aspects of this plan very well, so why had things ended up like this?!

Lu Manni, with shaking hands, closed her Weibo and once again dialled that unsaved number. After calling three times, the phone finally connected but before Lu Manni had time to start her interrogation, a low and hoarse voice drifted out. “Do not contact me again.”

Lu Manni was stunned for a few seconds, before her anger suddenly came back. Even forgetting to use the kind and gentle mask she always had on, she started yelling, “Li Hang, what are you saying?! Earlier we had discussed this perfectly, and yet, now that things have become like this, you are actually telling me not to contact you again?! Are you even worthy of the help I had provided you with back then, when you had desperately needed it?”

The other end of the phone was silent for a while, and just as Lu Manni was about to start berating and accusing him again, a low burst of contemptuous laughter sounded.

The laughter was a bit strange in the quiet of the night, and Lu Manni’s previous anger also cleared a bit and her reason gradually returned. She realized that she might need to use this person again in the future, so she adjusted her mood and softened her tone, saying, “Li Hang, I just… I just got a little flustered by this whole debacle, so I talked to you like that. I didn’t mean it. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Really?” After laughing, Li Hang’s voice seemed to become even more hoarse. “A person who’s phone number isn’t even worth keeping, am I really worth hiding your true face and using that gentle mask of deception with?”

Lu Manni was once again stunned. In the span of a few hours, she had already lost count of how many times she’d been stunned. Things kept exceeding her expectations again and again, and bringing along with them unbearable blows.

On the other end, Li Hang’s voice continues, “In fact, I’m probably thinking too much right? Because right from the beginning, you have never hid your true motives. I’m just a means to an end, and you’ve been using me all this time, right?”

Lu Manni’s mind became blank; she vaguely felt as if something had spun out of her control, and yet she had no ability to pull it back on track.

This feeling of powerlessness made her extremely flustered, but she first had to find a way to stabilize the Li Hang situation, so she settle her mind and employed a delicate voice filled with grievance, “Li Hang, have you misunderstood something? I’ve always treat you as a friend, I would never…”

“Enough!” Li Hang’s angry roar suddenly came through, shocking Lu Manni and causing her head and ears to vibrate. “Lu Manni, I already know everything, you don’t have to continue with that fake and disgusting farce! The first time, the first time we met, you weren’t just passing by. Before you appeared before me like an angel, you had already been waiting there for nearly half an hour!”

Lu Manni’s head spun, – she really wanted to ask how he knew all this.

However, Lu Manni quickly found an answer. She thought of Li Hang’s identity as a hacker and rationalized that it probably wasn’t too difficult for him to access the CCTVs of various intersections.

Lu Manni felt ridiculous – She had meticulously planned out everything, but she forgot the most important part!

“So everything is fake, you saving me, helping me, and the pure and kind look you always displayed – it’s all fake! And here I’d actually thought…” Li Hang’s speech was very fast, but at this point it stopped abruptly, and then he laughed again with a deep sense of self-deprecation and bitterness. After a while, his laughter finally stopped and his tone became calm and slow. “Lu Manni, your face really makes me sick!”

After this farewell word, Li Hang hung up the phone.

Lu Manni listened to the ‘du du du’ dial tone in a daze, and then finally recovered after a little while. Even Li Hang has abandoned her now, what should she do?!

For the first time since her rebirth, Lu Manni was at a loss. She even began to wonder what the meaning of her rebirth was.

Rebirth – shouldn’t that provide a new life of prosperity and fortune, with everything going her way?

So why did she meet with all these irritating problems? Why was everyone deliberately acting against her!

On the other end, Li Hang who had just hung up the phone directly entered Lu Manni’s number into his ‘blocked’ list. Then, using the information he had received as an entry point, he began to track his informant’s information.

“Host, the person I just sent information to seems to be trying to track us down.” After noticing Li Hang’s actions, Round Ball reported to Su Yu, while at the same time trying to act cute to raise affection points. “But feel reassured, my Host, with the high-tech skills bestowed upon this system, he will definitely not find anything!”

Who knew that as soon as the little ball’s words just finished, Su Yu suddenly said, “Leave some traces and let him find us.”

“……” Round Ball felt that it suffered 20,000 points of damage; what a hopeless life.

The feeling of acting cute but then being face-slapped really was a sour feeling. Under coercion and great reluctance, Round Ball was forced to leave some traces behind.

With the cooperation of the system, Li Hang quickly found his target and then sent off a message. “Who are you? Why did you help me?”

Round Ball reluctantly conveyed this message to Su Yu, who very honestly replied, “Tell him I am Zhao Qingsong, the President of Zhao Entertainment. Our company needs people like him, and will provide great compensation and benefits. Furthermore, he can also work from home. Tell him to seriously consider the offer.”

Round Ball froze a moment, and then bristled with anger and started jumping around mid-air, “Master Host! That person’s skills overlap with mine – I obviously do a better job than him, why do you want him?!”

Not letting it act cute to raise affections, alright, but now he wants to steal his rice bowl too [1]! What did it ever do wrong to him!

Of course, what Round Ball was most concerned with was why a nobody could get Su Yu’s promise of ‘great compensation and benefits’ while itself, who worked so hard and diligently, could only get bullied and exploited by the evil host!!

Round Ball immediately stopped whining, but just as it was about to sadly fly to a corner and draw circles, it was stopped by Su Yu’s voice. “Want to know why I’m treating this person differently?”

Round Ball really wanted to show its temper and just ignore Su Yu, but it ultimately couldn’t work up the courage to. In the end, it could only petulantly huff out, “Yeah.”

“Naturally it’s because of the hints from the original plot,” Su Yu laid back on the bed and began casually explaining, “In the original plot, after Lu Manni was reborn, no matter what she did, she didn’t experience any backlash at all. This is enough to show that there must absolutely have been a top-level hacker behind her. Humph, as the system who provided the original plotline, you didn’t even notice this?”

As he was speaking, Su Yu also turned around and gave Round Ball a contemptuous look.

Round Ball felt even more hurt, but this time decided not to dwell on it. It reviewed the original plot in its head, and then argued logically, “But the reason why the female protagonist could live so well was probably because of the male protagonist. Also, she had the help of her other men, so why do you believe she has the help of a hacker? Also, in the original story, there was no mentioned of such an existence – if that person really was special and helped the woman a lot, then he should have had some screen time right?”

Su Yu gave the little ball a judging look and and said, “And if that person was very ugly?”

“Of course, it’s not just because of this,” Su Yu looked at Round Ball’s face of amazement and said with a smile, “In fact, when the gossip first appeared online, I had checked the source of the information. And while I was at it, I also checked out the other person’s looks. It’s, hmmm, how to say it, well, a bit hard to describe. If you’re interested, you can go and see for yourself.”

“……” After being stupefied for two more seconds, Round Ball finally reacted and realized that it had been tricked once again by its host!

Why do other systems have hosts who are very soft and easily bullied, but it has a black-bellied devil! Ying ying ying, it can never love again ……

Su Yu was completely at ease with the devastation it had just caused the little ball, and only smiled and gave it another wound, “Remember to pass along the message I just gave you.”

Round Ball fell to the floor with a ‘boom’; it felt like it no longer had the ability to fly freely and unburdened.

But even so, after crying for a few minutes, the little ball was still forced by its host to convey the news to Li Hang.

Sure enough, even though its host abused it thousands of times, it will still choose to treat its host as its first love… in this world, there really aren’t many systems left who are as full of love and unconditional acceptance like itself.

After Li Hang received the information, his whole person spazzed. He had initially thought that the other was just a hacker with a vendetta against Lu Manni, but didn’t expect to actually find the President of Zhao Entertainment!

Zhao Qingsong’s big name is one he’d heard before. In the reports he’d read, the other is a successful entrepreneur, a handsome man, and a young master. Now, he suddenly learned that the other actually shares a profession with himself – a hacker! Li Hang’s heart was inexplicably filled with a hint of excitement.

He was actually comrades with the President of Zhao Entertainment!

In order to celebrate this happy event and to show his determination, Li Hang found a recording of his call with Lu Manni and immediately released it to the world. The recording contained explicit details regarding how Lu Manni had ordered him to fabricate details of a love affair between herself and Qi Chen.

As soon as this recording appeared, the concerned fans and passers-by immediately went ‘wtf’.

The Wind is too Strong: [My god! It turns out that Lu Manni was behind everything! What should I say now? What even can I say now? I just want to say, Lu Manni, you haven’t even been an actor for very long, and yet you are so anxious to be a director? Aren’t you afraid of losing money?!]

Covered Circle: [Lu Manni is set to lose money this time – the Male Gods doesn’t even acknowledge her presence, and now with this shocking material revealed, it looks like she won’t be getting back the money she paid her water army!]

I feel like I am so Cute: [Feeling sorry for the water army who were hired by Lu Manni. Now you can’t get a job, and can’t eat anymore right?]

My Male God is SO SO Handsome: [Humph, I said long ago that Lu Manni this green tea is not worthy of my Male God. This kind of woman, don’t even think of holding my Male God’s shoes!]

Hey Haha: [Wow, such late-night drama! It’s just over a little too fast – I haven’t seen enough yet!]

Stop Talking, Everyone: [This is called raining on your own parade. Now Lu Manni’s ruined her own reputation, right? Can’t live anymore? I like it, I really like it.]

Everyone Comes Together: [Feeling sorry for those netizens who kept speaking on behalf of Lu Manni, is there anywhere on your body that’s not hurting? I can add in a few more punches if needed!]

I’m so mad: [I’m so mad, I’ve decided to become Lu Manni’s black fan [2]! Who else wants to join? The more the merrier!]

……

Su Yu sprawled leisurely on the bed as he calmly flipped through the Internet storm currently ongoing. He unhappily pursed his lips and snorted – the woman’s reputation was going downhill so fast that it wasn’t even as exhilarating anymore.

Haha I hear that there’s an arc a little while later when SY enters without Round Ball and he has absolutely no idea what’s going on! Seems interesting lol, I haven’t read that far yet, but I’m looking forward to it!